A panel of cable, television and rich media ad companies converged today at ILM East to remind us that the PC (and mobile) isn’t the only screen where content delivery innovation is happening.

Dan Hassan, Chairman and CEO, BCM
Greg Rogers, CEO and Cofounder, Pictela
Jonathan Spaet, senior director for advanced advertising for Via Media

This time of year, with March Madness attracting millions of viewers into couch potato mode, the opportunity exists to infuse more interactive advertising. One way this plays out is with the directional advertising, traditionally the stuff of Yellow Pages and local search.

Examples include a Yellow Pages widget embedded in the cable interface that lets viewers order a pizza during commercial breaks or halftime (AT&T’s Uverse already does this). With tax day coming up, viewers can also stave procrastination by looking up tax services while in lean back mode.

“We’re trying to figure out what a game changer this is,” said Jonathan Spaet. “The idea is to let advertisers looking for women on Liftetime or men on ESPN to utilize our walled garden on your TV to get an extra level of interactivity and monetization.”